Old Co-Op Games We Practically Forgot About

Yes, most of them are older than you.

We all know that co-op gaming was invented in 2003 by Al Gore. The back of that placemat in IHOP told us so. It turns out, however, that some really smart computer people managed to pull off some crafty multiplayer tricks back in the 1970s, creating some of the first video games with co-op modes. And then there's us, the spoiled gamers that we are, what with our screens that display more than two colors and such. We went and had the gall to go and forget about them! Well, that ends today!

Some time around 1975, a party-based role playing game called Moria was developed for the PLATO computer system (a breeding ground for early multiplayer games). It had a text-filled interface with tons of player status information, all surrounding a stunning wire-frame first person point of view. Well, stunning for something the size of a few postage stamps, but this was 1975, remember. The story and mechanics were strikingly similar to Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings, even though co-creator Kevet Duncombe says he hadn't heard of either until after the project started.

Here's where the fun really begins. Moria allowed parties of up to ten characters to be formed, each one controlled by a human player. One person is designated as a guide who has control over where the party goes between terrain blocks. Within those blocks are rooms that people can explore independently, killing creatures and hauling back loot at their leisure. Messages could even be exchanged via an IRC-like interface, just in case you needed to smack talk someone who wasn't being as cooperative as they should have been.

There were a few other things about Moria that set it apart from the games it was inspired by, such as Oubliette and dnd. For example, players could tie a string around an object in a room and use it to find your way back in case you got lost. Enemies in later levels can chew through the rope, however, so it's no replacement for hand-drawn maps.

Yep, Asteroids had a co-op mode. The tritely-classic arcade game hasn't been forgotten, but the co-op mode its console port featured doesn't get much attention. Instead of blasting 'roids all by yourself, owners of the 1979 Atari console version could plug in another paddle and shoot vector rocks as a team. Both ships were on the screen at the same time, creating a basic but effective atmosphere of cooperation. Of course, like any co-op game there were always those moments when your buddy blasted an asteroid and its shattered pieces crashed into you. That was his fault, not the game's. You should reach over and break his paddle.

A role playing game thick with strategy elements, Keven Kenney's 1982 release Tunnels of Doom was ahead of its time in a number of ways. One way it wasn't, though, was its choice of platform. Tunnels was released for the TI-99/4A, a computer system that had to compete with the likes of the Commodore 64. You might have some vague memories of Bill Cosby telling you to buy this computer back in the '80s. When he said "this is the one", though, he was wrong. The TI-99/4A never caught on, leaving games like Tunnels of Doom to wither into pixel dust.

After a lengthy setup process, Tunnels of Doom places your party of four in a first person dungeon on a quest to save the king and recover his Rainbow Orb or some such nonsense. Half your time will be spent wandering the nearly identical hallways as you desperately look for doors to enter. There is an automap feature, which was surprisingly futuristic for 1982, so you're not totally on your own. The other half of the time you'll be bumping into enemies, at which point the view changes to a grid and a turn-based strategic battle takes place.

Sadly, co-op was pretty minimal in Tunnels of Doom. The only thing players could do together was control their own characters in combat, taking turns sliding around the grid and doing their combat thing. At least now we know where Final Fantasy VI got its co-op idea from.

Go ahead, make fun of the name. We certainly did! Dandy (or Dandy Dungeons, if you like) was basically Gauntlet two years before Gauntlet was Gauntlet. The primitive dungeon crawler was designed by John Palevish and released for Atari 8-Bit computers in 1983. Just like Gauntlet, players were tossed into maze-like levels with the goal of getting to the exit alive. Enemies spawned all over the place just begging to be shot by your crafty little arrows. Potions, food and keys were part of the experience, as was a level editor that allowed players to make their own stages and exchange them with other people. Far-out psychedelic, or whatever people said in 1983.

The best part is Dandy supported co-op for up to four players. The screen scrolled according to an average of each player's location, creating a pretty extreme atmosphere of cooperation. "Everybody stay together so we can actually see what we're doing, ok?" The original idea for Dandy was to have a fifth player acting as sort of a dungeon master, but time constraints prevented that role from ever being implemented.

Dandy was followed by Dark Chambers a few years later, though it only supported two player co-op. Gauntlet lives on to this day, and it even gets its own 2014 reboot.

Probably the least forgotten about game of the bunch, Dungeon Explorer was developed by Atlus and released in 1989 for the TurboGrafx-16. It combined Gauntlet-like gameplay with action RPG elements akin to Secret of Mana, allowing as many as five people to join forces as they search for the missing Ora Stone. Of course, in order to play with the full roster of five characters, you had to have the sold-separately Multi-tap accessory. Odds were if you had a TurboGrafx-16 you didn't have that many friends in the first place. (Does that count as a retro burn?)

Ancient console wars aside, Dungeon Explorer got a new lease on life when it was released on the Wii Virtual Console back in 2006/2007. Two related games were pushed out in Japan around this time. They were later localized and released for PSP and DS in North America as Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient arts and Dungeon Explorer in Europe. Two player co-op was possible via wireless play, but because the game didn't get a very warm reception, nobody was around to play with you. TG-16 all over again.